KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A former Missouri election integrity director alleges Secretary of State Denny Hoskins fired him after he reported plans to manufacture a whistleblower complaint and threats against local election officials.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in Cole County Circuit Court, Nicholas La Strada accuses Hoskins of terminating him one week after he reported that senior officials had discussed fabricating an anonymous whistleblower complaint to use in a federal court hearing. La Strada had served in the position for roughly 15 months.

The lawsuit details a series of allegations dating back to April 2025, shortly after Hoskins appointed La Strada, a Republican and former Pettis County Clerk, to the office. The complaint lists Hoskins, the State of Missouri and the Secretary of State office as the defendants.

“When the State of Missouri hired Plaintiff Nicholas La Strada as its Director of Election Integrity, it got the watchdog it deserved to ensure full and fair elections throughout Missouri,” the complaint reads. “Unfortunately, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins wanted a lapdog instead who would look the other way while Defendants engaged in conduct that violated the law.”

The lawsuit comes after a turbulent two-week period for Hoskins’ office as courts considered which congressional map would govern Missouri’s November election.

Anne Marie Moy, a spokesperson for Hoskins, said the office “won’t be able to provide a comment on pending litigations involving a personnel issue.”

Fabricating a whistleblower

The petition alleges La Strada was present at an April 15 meeting where the Secretary of State’s chief of staff Matt Alsager, State Auditor chief of staff Brandon Alexander, director of elections Chrissy Peters and deputy general counsel Jackie Bryant discussed a whistleblower fabrication. Alexander allegedly joined by speakerphone.

“During this meeting, the participants, excluding Plaintiff La Strada, discussed fabricating a false whistleblower submission to offer as evidence about the Missouri Centralized Voter Registration system, to be routed through an ‘IP scrambler’ and a ‘burner’ phone so the source could not be traced,” the petition says.

The complaint was to be offered as evidence in a federal hearing about an alleged violation of the Help America Vote Act. The law allows people to file complaints about voting system standards, voter information requirements, statewide registration databases, among other issues.

“Plaintiff La Strada was shocked and shared his objection to creating false evidence and/or false complaints questioning the integrity of the MCVR system to submit as an alleged legitimate anonymous complaint during the federal HAVA hearing,” the petition says.

La Strada says he brought the issue to the secretary of state’s legal counsel, who allegedly said the actions could constitute a federal crime. The petition says La Strada informed Hoskins on April 21.

Three days later, La Strada was allegedly asked not to attend a court hearing where a judge had ordered his appearance. La Strada alleges that his key-card access to the Capitol, where the hearing was held, was revoked but he was able to appear despite the deactivation.

After the hearing, La Strada was allegedly told to speak with Hoskins, who confirmed his badge was revoked at Hoskins’ direction. La Strada was fired the following week.

Local election interference

The earliest allegation in the lawsuit occurred on April 3, 2025, when La Strada raised concerns over the alleged use of public funds for a mailer opposed to Proposition B, a proposed amendment to the St. Louis County Charter allowing the county council to fire department directors or the county counselor.

The lawsuit claims La Strada recommended that the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office review the use of funds, or refer the matter to the Missouri attorney general’s office for investigation. Proposition B ultimately failed.

Roughly two months after La Strada voiced his concern, his access to the Missouri Centralized Voter Registration System was allegedly cut off. He asked Alsager to restore his access to the system, but never received a response, according to the complaint.

A year later, the lawsuit alleges, the Secretary of State’s Office intervened after Saline County’s local election authority certified the results of a City of Marshall election. After receiving a complaint about how write-in votes were combined, the office conducted its own retabulation, according to the petition.

“Despite clear law prohibiting it, four days later, Defendant Office undertook its own retabulation. The Office instructed City officials to change the winner of the election,” the petition says. “City officials told Plaintiff they complied because Defendants told them that they ‘would be investigated if they did not comply.’”

When La Strada told Hoskins that the office could not compel a change to certified election results, and that only a court could take that action, he was ignored, according to the petition.

La Strada is asking the courts to declare that Hoskins and his office violated his rights, prevent them from engaging in the same conduct and award damages for lost pay and suffering.

A few turbulent weeks

Hoskins has been in the spotlight after a flurry of conflicting decisions by state and federal court decisions in recent weeks over which congressional map the state will use in the November election.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the state must use the map passed in 2022 in the upcoming November election. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in the decision in an emergency appeal from Republicans.

Minutes after that decision, however, a federal court in St. Louis issued a temporary restraining order saying Missouri election officials could use only the gerrymandered 2025 map. The U.S. Supreme Court paused that decision, leaving voters with the map previously used in 2022 and 2024.

Hoskins’ decision to tell state election officials to use the 2025 map after the federal ruling resulted in him being held in contempt by the Missouri Supreme Court. He was not punished, however, because he later instructed election officials to use the 2022 map.

Republican lawmakers passed a different map last year designed to carve Kansas City into three Republican-leaning districts and oust Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.

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